The earlier history of the flute is that of the "German" or "old system" flute. Such flutes generally were wooden and, by the start of the nineteenth century, had eight keys. Nevertheless, a wide variety of flutes commonly were in use, having one, to as many as seventeen, keys; and many fingering systems (the manner in which the player engages the keys with his fingers) also were employed.
As the typical orchestra evolved from a chamber orchestra type into the full symphony orchestra, many defects of the flute became apparent. The wooden German flute had uncertain intonation, tone which was relatively weak and readily lost in the full symphony orchestra sound, and fingering systems not up to the task of playing the more complex music being written.
Theobald Boehm, working in the 1830's and 1840's, and particularly through his 1847 flute, developed the modern, cylindrical flute, finger mechanism and fingering system. With the addition of the Briccialdi B flat thumb lever, the Boehm flute and fingering system are today's standards.
Attempts have been made to improve the Boehm flute. Gage, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,586,794, provided a mechanism whereby depressing the G or E keys would elevate the B flat key while the thumb was on the Briccialdi B flat lever. Julliot, in French Patent No. 317,433, addressed the sounding of high F sharp; awkward connections such as high F sharp to A, and high F to A, called fork fingerings; and difficult trill fingerings originating with G sharp.
A most vexing problem of the Boehm flute and fingering system is movement of the left hand thumb to and between the B flat and B natural levers, most particularly when high F sharp or high B natural is to be played. A very common mistake, particularly for beginning students, is the failure to move the thumb from B flat lever down position to the B natural lever down position when attempting to play high F sharp or high B natural.